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Our vehicle fleet is making the switch

Responsible Heathrow case study

Close to 200,000 passengers pass through Heathrow every day, making it one of the world’s busiest international airports. This means we need a lot of vehicles to transport people, baggage and equipment – we have around 8,000 vehicles in the airside area alone.

We are committed to playing our part in improving air quality in the local area around Heathrow. As well as activities at the airport, local emissions come from surrounding roads, industry and housing. Working with partners to reduce emissions from vehicles operating in and around Heathrow is helping us to reduce emissions and act as a responsible neighbour.

We know it’s unlikely that just one solution will reduce emissions from our fleet so our Air Quality Strategy focuses on trialling and adopting various cleaner vehicle fuels and technologies.

850 vehicles in the airside fleet at Heathrow are electric, making it one of the largest fleets of electric airside vehicles in Europe. As well as electric tugs that move baggage around the airfield, we use electric cars and vans to transport our people. We are trialling electric specialist ground support vehicles such as belt loaders, cargo loaders and push back tractors.

We are also supporting the development of hydrogen vehicle technology. We host the UK’s first publically accessible hydrogen fuelling station at Heathrow. The station (opened in 2012) is part of the which has introduced hydrogen fuel cell taxis into London that refuel at Heathrow. And we are working with aviation and European Partners to support the development of hydrogen fuelled airport ground support equipment through the Hylift project.

Encouraging low emissions vehicles at Heathrow can also help our operators to reduce their fuel and maintenance costs. Our Clean Vehicles Partnership supports airport operators to make the switch to low and zero emission vehicles.

Responsible Heathrow 2020 is our commitment to supporting the UK and local economies and reducing Heathrow’s environmental impacts, while looking after our people and passengers. It is helping us achieve our ambition to be one of the most responsible airports in the world.